Tuesday, June 26, 2018

June 21st was the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and if you’re feeling a little happier at the end of the week, science may explain why. The summer solstice are one of the happiest days of the year, and it’s all thanks to that sweet, sweet sunshine.

Philip Gehrman, associate director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Pennsylvania, says that people are generally more cheerful in the summertime.

Why? Light is the strongest cue when it comes to the body regulating circadian rhythms like the sleep cycle and hormonal fluctuations, more light is generally a good thing when it comes to improving your mood. I'm Sun addict for sure!

On the Summer Solstice, June’s waxing moon will reach its full lunar phase in the wee hours of June 28, kicking off a summer of celestial happenings. Stargazers are in for a treat since this full moon, known as the Strawberry Moon, also happens to arrive during Saturn opposition, meaning Saturn will be at its closest and brightest this year.

Summer will offer rare opportunities for stargazers. Events such as Mars opposition in late July will bring the red planet closer to Earth than it has been in 15 years, giving anyone with a telescope the chance to see Mars’ unique features more closely than usual.

The Strawberry Moon will be the season’s first celestial event visible to stargazers, and thanks to Saturn opposition occurring on the same night, it won’t disappoint.

This year’s Strawberry Moon, which marks the short harvesting season for strawberries, offers an exciting event for celestial sightseers. But this year, Saturn’s opposition will be visibleuntil September.

“It’s the most colorful of all full moons,” Daniel M. Soref, Milwaukee Public Museum’s Theater & Planetarium director, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview published Monday. “We always get more color in the sky when things are lower.”

One thing to note is that the moon will also appear as a minimoon, which is difficult to notice with the naked eye but means the moon is at the furthest possible position from Earth. A minimoon happens when the moon is at its furthest point from Earth (called the apogee). It will appear just a tad bit smaller in the sky.

For the two celestial events to share a set time is a rare treat for stargazers, but it’s just the first of many cosmic happenings slated for this summer.

Summer solstice, also called 'midsummer' is a special day for many as it means the start of the summer. It has links to many ancient cultural practices as different cultures have celebrated it being symbolic of renewal, fertility and harvest.

Every year, hundreds of pagans and non-pagans congregate at Stonehenge to see the sun rise in the morning and welcome in the summer. Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with it’s neighbour Avebury. Some pagans and druids perform a fire ritual to celebrate the occasion. This involves people with unlit candles forming a circle around a large lit central candle and lighting theirs off it one at a time.

On June 27, Earth’s orbit will bring the planet in between Saturn and the sun, which will place Saturn opposite the sun in Earth’s sky and create a rare opportunity to observe the ringed planet throughout the night. Saturn will rise in the southeast sky around sunset, where it will be at its closest and brightest in 2018 before setting in the west around sunrise.

Stargazers can catch the Strawberry moon on June 27 as well, on June 28. Saturn will be at its highest in the sky around midnight, making it easy to observe alongside the moon.

While the Strawberry Moon will only hang around for one night, there will be opportunities to see Saturn and its bright opposition until September. For the two celestial events to share a set time is a rare treat for stargazers, but it’s just the first of many cosmic happenings slated for this summer.

Education:

On June 27 and 28, 2018, find the full moon and look in the moon’s glare for a starlike point. That point is a planet, Saturn.

Such an incredible event the Strawberry Moon June 28 and most European students (primary, elementary education) are enjoying summer holiday.

So teachers can't include Summer solstice and Strawberry Moon (June 2018) into school lessons. However, students are curious, and they will pay attention on YouTube perhaps? Yes, they are the YouTubers generation

So the date of the June 2018 full moon depends on your time zone. From the most of the contiguous U.S., the moon turns full on the evening of June 27. From Portugal and the western portions of Africa, the instant of full moon occurs before sunrise June 28.

For Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and the most of Europe, the moon turns full during the daylight hours on June 28, at which time the sun is above the horizon and the moon is below it.

Each year on 12 June, the World Day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.

"Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour,end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms."

"There are 541 million young workers (15-24 years old) globally. They account for more than 15 per cent of the world’s labour force and suffer up to a 40 per cent higher rate of non-fatal occupational injuries than adult workers older than 25. They include 37 million 15-17 year olds in hazardous child labour."

The returns on the investment in ending child labour are incalculable. Children who are free from the burden of child labour are able to fully realize their rights to education, leisure, and healthy development, in turn providing the essential foundation for broader social and economic development, poverty eradication, and human rights.

"We must move much faster if we are to honour our commitment on ending child labour, and we need to do it together."

Schools and other educational institutions make a special effort to inform children of their rights according to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Teachers have a crucial roleon the alert of poverty or child labour, modern slavery cases among their students.

Numerous resources can be included into school curricula to inform, inspire and motivate students of all ages, from primary school through university, on the subject of child labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.

Activities :

Display photos, news, videos on the theme in the classroom and invite the students to express their feelings about;

Explain younger students the symbolic of special days like this one.

Ask students to make a search on child labour in their own country, comparing with other countries, using tablets or smartphones;

Choose a wall in the classroom or another space in the school - school library is a good place - where students in a cross-curricular can display their depictions of child labour, modern slavery and human trafficking:works of art, photos, storytelling;

Organize an exhibition of photos or drawings on child labour, modern slavery in the classroom, school library, other spaces at school;

Ask students to set up information stands on the internet, social media (radio, television) or social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to raise school awareness on the issue;

Prepare a play at the school library written by your students. Invite parents, teachers, the maire and students from another school;

Present a film on this theme in the classroom or at the school library, and invite teachers, parents, and other students to a Round Table discussion;

Students can prepare brochures, flyers to hand out to other students, teachers and school community;

Make a film on YouTube (students are often Youtubers) joining authentic documents (photos) and texts written by the students.

Other resources:On the website ILO you will have some good material and you can find activities from all around the world.

Some thoughts:Of course World Day Against Child's Labour is not for a lesson. As a teacher you will prepare the activity for 3-4 days, a week (it will depend on the activities you intend to develop and the level you are teaching).

And what about the teacher role? We will facilitate the activities in the classroom. Teachers will organize the activities asking the collaboration of the students.

Since the role of the teacher has changed, more as a tutor or facilitator than a deliverer of content, you and I have the privilege of observe how students interact among classmates.

We will answer to questions, guide students with special needs, work with small groups, guiding the learning of the class and each student individually.

Teachers have time to roam around the class, noticing that students are developing their own collaborative work.

It is magical to observe that ! And at the end you will have creative activities elaborated by the students.

When we interact with our students this way, they usually correspond to teachers expectations.They realize - it takes time - that we are there to guide them in their learning instead of being a classical educator.

Fight Ilegal Contents

Member

Email

Expert

My website

Global Junior Challenge 2004

Micro-Innovator ICT Learning

Certified Expert

Recent Publications

Souto, G. (2013) Time for Action: New Challenges in Secondary Education. At Conference Proceedings, International Conference The Future of Education, Florence, Italy.

Souto, G. (2013) Visionary Learning for 2030: Secondary Education. In Booklet online "Vision on Open Education 2030 Part 2: School Education", European Commission and The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).

TEDxKids Brussels 2011

Gina Souto was guest tweeting from TEDxKids in Brussels on June 1st."48 kids, all of them born in 2000, are going get their hands dirty, soldering, tinkering, hacking and composing. A series of hands-on workshops will introduce the kids to a range of skills and methods.

At the same time 400 adults will be treated to an all day program of leading thinkers, experts and makers."

The twitter address is @TEDxKidsEU and there was a fantastic live stream from the event.